To prevent data loss, data is often copied or mirrored to one or more backup storage devices and/or systems. The backup storage device(s) or system(s) may be co-located with or remotely located from the primary storage device(s) and/or system(s).
Typically, mirrored data from the backup storage device(s) and/or system(s) is used to recover data when there is full array data loss on the primary storage device(s) and/or system(s). However, prior recovery techniques can be inefficient and/or inconvenient.
For instance, when a single array goes offline on the primary site, all the storage volumes in the same extent pool may become inaccessible. Further, prior recovery technique normally need to copy the entire extent data pool from a secondary site to primary site, which can create unnecessary latency because all the mirrored data is copied back to the primary site for recovery. Moreover, some users that have only a single array offline, may attempt every means possible and/or take high amounts of risk to bring the array back online in an effort to avoid the undue latency caused by restoring the data from backup.
Another issue that can cause recovery techniques to be inefficient and/or inconvenient occurs when a device in an array is experiencing one or more errors and is in the process of rebuilding and another device in the array reports one or more errors that may cause the entire array go offline in future and/or may cause the device rebuild take a substantial amount of time and/or increase the rebuild time. Here, having multiple devices experience errors and/or being rebuilt during an overlapping period of time can adversely impact the performance of a storage network and/or system. Accordingly, at least some previous storage networks may not be operating as efficiently and/or effectively as possible.